Social Influence on Positive Youth Development: A Developmental Neuroscience Perspective

Abstract

Susceptibility to social influence is associated with a host of negative outcomes during adolescence. However, emerging evidence implicates the role of peers and parents in adolescents' positive and adaptive adjustment. Hence, in this chapter we highlight social influence as an opportunity for promoting social adjustment, which can redirect negative trajectories and help adolescents thrive. We discuss influential models about the processes underlying social influence, with a particular emphasis on internalizing social norms, embedded in social learning and social identity theory. We link this behavioral work to developmental social neuroscience research, rooted in neurobiological models of decision making and social cognition. Work from this perspective suggests that the adolescent brain is highly malleable and particularly oriented toward the social world, which may account for heightened susceptibility to social influences during this developmental period. This chapter underscores the need to leverage social influences during adolescence, even beyond the family and peer context, to promote positive developmental outcomes. By further probing the underlying neural mechanisms as an additional layer to examining social influence on positive youth development, we will be able to gain traction on our understanding of this complex phenomenon.

Maternal Buffering of Adolescent Dysregulation in Socially Appetitive Contexts: From Behavior to the Brain

“…Thus, caregivers may promote recruitment of mPFC to downregulate affective processing of the amygdala in order to regulate their inhibition within socially appetitive contexts. Our findings are consistent with theories suggesting that adolescence is a period of neurobiological flexibility and potential (Crone & Dahl, ; Telzer et al., ), such that neural plasticity in the adolescent brain is amenable to caregivers’ influence for modulating neural activation and regulation. The neuroimaging analyses provide novel, but low powered, findings, which should be interpreted with caution and utilized to propel future work investigating the neurobiological underpinnings of maternal buffering during adolescence.…”

“…Older adolescents performed significantly worse in response to socially appetitive stimuli compared to socially aversive stimuli, whereas younger participants did not demonstrate this disparity. These findings are consistent with developmental theory suggesting that adolescents are neurobiologically sensitive to positive social cues to help them obtain social status and navigate novel social environments (Kuhn, 2006;Telzer et al, 2018), as well as empirical work indicating that adolescents experience disinhibition in socially appetitive contexts (Perino et al, 2016;Somerville et al, 2011). While adolescents were more susceptible to disinhibition to appetitive stimuli, we found that this emotional dysregulation was completely buffered in the presence of their mothers.…”

“…Furthermore, parents buffer adolescents from associating with deviant peers and engaging in substance use (Van Ryzin, Fosco, & Dishion, 2012), and buffer against negative changes in adolescent depression and risk-taking behavior (Qu, Fuligni, Galvan, & Telzer, 2015;Wang, Hill, & Hofkens, 2014). Although adolescents navigate different social challenges as compared to children, parents continue to provide an important influence on their children as they develop across adolescence (for a review, Telzer, van Hoorn, Rogers, & Do, 2018).…”

Neighbourhood disadvantage and depressive symptoms among adolescents followed into emerging adulthood

“…If individuals do not perceive their neighbourhoods as disadvantaged, neighbourhoods with objectively disadvantageous structural characteristics may not be associated with a higher risk for depression. Adolescents and young adults may be less likely to perceive their neighbourhoods as disadvantaged than older individuals, even in the presence of objective indicators, if their peers in similar neighbourhoods also do not perceive their neighbourhoods as disadvantaged 53. Alternatively, supportive relationships with peers may buffer the stressors associated with neighbourhood adversity that are implicated in the aetiology of depression 53…”

Conductas de riesgo y adaptación de conducta en adolescentes de colegios nacionales del distrito de La Esperanza, Trujillo

“…Se prueba a sí mismo, una y otra vez, para ver de lo que es capaz y lo que necesita para sentirse igual a sus pares (1) . Además, en esta etapa, los cambios biológicos, sociales y psicológicos replantean la definición personal y social del adolescente por medio de una segunda individuación que movilice procesos de exploración, diferenciación del medio familiar, búsqueda de pertenencia y sentido de vida, además de otras situaciones que conllevan ansiedad y vulnerabilidad (2,3) .…”